Chemistry.com

Monday, February 1, 2010

Los Angeles, Feb. 1, 2010 - Gays and Lesbians Allied Against Defamation, an advocacy group that focuses on LGBT media representations, has asked CBSto explain its decision to not air a commercial with gay content during the Super Bowl this Sunday.

The network sent a letter to the advertiser, ManCrunch, claiming the “creative is not within the Network’s Broadcast Standards for Super Bowl Sunday.” GLAAD is urging LGBT community members and allies to speak out against CBS, noting that it has agreed to run an anti-abortion ad during the Super Bowl produced by the fundamentalist Christian activist group, Focus on the Family.

Focus on the Family has a long history of spreading homophobia and working against LGBT equality. The decision by CBS follows years of turning down LGBT-inclusive commercials from the United Church of Christ.

“CBS has a problem when they do something like this at the same time as they allow an anti-gay group like Focus on the Family to place ads during the Super Bowl,” said GLAAD president Jarrett Barrios in an article posted yesterday on its blog. “This network should come clean to the public about what’s going on because this seems to be a homophobic double standard.”

The network was recently criticized by GLAAD for blurring a same-sex kiss between Adam Lambert and a band member during a news segment on the “CBS Early Show.” It was covering Lambert’s controversial performance at the American Music Awards. The kiss led to accusations of a double standard in the media regarding same-sex affection between males, which are often framed with an “ick” factor, vs. similar behavior between females being tolerated and in some cases eroticized by heterosexual men.

A growing number of businesses are trying to appeal to gay and lesbian consumers. A study conducted in 2006 by the research firm Packaged Facts, in collaboration with Witeck-Combs Communications, a gay and lesbian marketing agency, revealed the buying power for gay and lesbian Americans to be $660 billion. It is expected to pass $835 billion by 2011.